Quantized Faraday effect in (3+1)-dimensional and (2+1)-dimensional systems

Abstract

We study Faraday rotation in the quantum relativistic limit. Starting from the photon self-energy in the presence of a constant magnetic field the rotation of the polarization vector of a plane electromagnetic wave which travel along the fermion-antifermion gas is studied. The connection between Faraday Effect and Quantum Hall Effect (QHE) is discussed. The Faraday Effect is also investigated for a massless relativistic (2D+1)-dimensional fermion system which is derived by using the compactification along the dimension parallel to the magnetic field. The Faraday angle shows a quantized behavior as Hall conductivity in two and three dimensions.

Comments: 15 pages, 5 figures